I have now had time to peruse the Savage Worlds core book, and I have to express my sincere gratitude to the creators for such a phenomenal game system. As I sit here listening to the soundtrack for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog I am reminded of the vast opportunities that Savage Worlds provides. Like GURPS, it is a system designed to handle any setting or concept thrown at it. Unlike GURPS, it succeeds without bogging down in bloat. The core book is small and inexpensive, and it’s really all that you need to get things rolling with a Savage Worlds game. In fact, the most important thing for any game is really a creative imagination, and that is certainly true for Savage Worlds. Dieselpunk? If you can imagine it you can play it. Future apocalypse plus elves on crack? If you can imagine it you can play it.

Today I picked up both Zombie Run and The Savage World of Solomon Kane. Zombie Run is a great PDF from the Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and it’s not too expensive. If you like zombie games like Left 4 Dead, or pretty much anything with zombies, really, then Zombie Run will appeal. Without getting into spoilers, the characters are some of the few survivors of the zombie apocalypse. On their cross-country journey they will encounter zombies, crazy people, and more zombies and crazy people. I can’t wait to run it.

The Savage World of Solomon Kane is based on the works of Robert E. Howard, a fantasy author in the 1920s. The book is quite large (and much more expensive than a PDF), but it is well worth the cost. The characters are wanderers in the tradition of Solomon Kane, landless Puritan and all-around badass dude. Kane’s legacy is that of a devoted do-gooder armed with a gun, a pistol, and a crucifix, and the characters follow in his footsteps as they continue to do his good works. The world is quite developed, and very compelling. Also highly recommended.

I’m also already working up my own dieselpunk campaign setting for Savage Worlds – airplanes, ray guns, and post-war politics lead to hilarious hijink and maybe, just maybe, thermonuclear war. I hope to post it in bits and pieces here as it comes together, as well as in PDF format. Long story short, Savage Worlds rocks my world. Let it rock yours.